The marvellous discovery of a new world aroused the spirit of maritime enterprise in England, and to one of her sons indisputably belongs the glory of having first reached the Continent of North America. England had not yet assumed that position of preeminence in naval affairs which she afterwards acquired. Long and exhausting civil wars had prevented the development of that active energy and hardy endurance which have since characterized the natives of England on the ocean. Yet when the news of what Columbus had done reached England, Henry VII., a shrewd and thrifty monarch, was ready at once to enter into competition for the prizes which the new world might disclose. Accordingly he availed himself with eagerness of the offer of John Cabot, a Venetian[1] merchant, residing in Bristol, to fit out several vessels for discovery which might be made any where north of the route originally taken by Columbus. In a patent obtained from the king, and signed at Westminster, March 5th, 1496, Cabot was authorized, with his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian and Sancius, "to saile to all parts, countreys and seas of the East, of the West, and of the North, under our banners and ensigns, with five ships, of what burden or quantitie soever they may be, and as many mariners and men as they will have with them in the said ships, upon their own proper cost and charges, to seeke out, discover and find whatsoever isles, countreys, regions or provinces of the heathen and infidels, whatsoever they may be, and in what part of the world soever they may be, which before this time have been unknown to all Christians."[2] The expedition sailed under the command of Sebastian Cabot, who was born in Bristol, England, a youthful but sagacious mariner, and on June 24th, 1497, they discovered land, which was a part of the coast of Labrador, and which they named Prima Vista they saw also an island, which they called St. John's Island, from the day on which it was discovered : it was "full of white bears, and stagges, far greater than the English."[3] Disappointed in his expectation of finding a north-west passage to the land of Cathay, or the Indies, with its marvels and wonders, as old Marco Polo tells them, Cabot returned to England. He made a second voyage to America, the particulars of which have been but scantily preserved. On a third voyage, in 1517, Hudson's Bay was undoubtedly entered, and Cabot penetrated to about the sixty-seventh degree of north latitude; but his crew, terrified by the fields of ice, in the month of July, clamored for a return, and Cabot reluctantly sailed back to England. This eminent navigator, having lived to a
- ↑ Charlevoix ("Travels, &c., in 1720,") notices a point connected with early discoveries in America well worth remembering:—"I cannot dispense with a passing remark. It is very glorious to Italy, that the three powers which now divide between them almost the whole of America, owe their first discoveries to Italians—the Spanish to Columbus, a Genoese, the English to John Cabot and his sons, Venetians, and the French to Verrazzani, a citizen of Florence." Sebastian Cabot, however, as noted above, was a native of England.
- ↑ Hakluyt's "Voyages and Discovers," vol. iii., p. 6.
- ↑ See Hayward's "Life of Sebastian Cabot," p. 8.
